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By Cathy Hunt
Troup County President
If you have spent as many hours in school as I have in your lifetime, you will certainly remember significant events from our world in your memories of school.
Twenty years ago today (as of this writing) I got to school and thought to myself what a beautiful September day it was – a cloudless sky, a bright blue, a touch of freshness in the early morning air – just like today. About an hour later, the young teacher in front of me walked up to my door and said I might want to turn on the TV, that something horrible was going on in New York City. So I did. Soon the students and I were enthusiastically watching the aviation reports
“accident.” Shortly after nine o’clock we watched in horror the live broadcast of the second plane hitting the other tower. I said out loud, “These are not accidents.
As the news made its way into the school and we nervously waited for what might happen next, the decision was made not to change classes. Everything was strangely quiet in the building, except for the voices of the TV presenters. Then came the Pentagon, then Shanksville, and then came the immobilization of all air travel across the country. It was scary.
We didn’t have school the next day. I watched TV all the time, but attended a twilight vigil around the flagpole at THS one evening. What kept me from feeling absolutely hopeless was how the country came together in a wave of patriotism and concern for others. However, I also remember thinking with sadness how easily these feelings would be forgotten twenty, ten, or even five years from now.
I had the privilege last week of attending the JROTC’s annual 9/11 commemoration at this same flag pole of the school where I stood twenty years ago. Although the students in attendance were not even born on September 11, everyone watched in silence, hands or hats over their hearts, as the flag was lowered; listened to a student play a flawless rendition of Taps; heard the remarks of the same young teacher – now a school principal – who brought the news to me that day. A graduate of Troup High, Marjorie Champion Salamone, who died at the Pentagon, is remembered as every year.
My sad memories of those days are made even sadder when I think about how, twenty years later, we (and the whole world) are drawn into yet another massive crisis that has claimed thousands more lives, but this time , instead of pulling together to defeat a common enemy, we dig into different sides of a national debate. What would those intrepid officials who, covered in ash and sweat, have given their lives to save others, think of a refusal to wear a veil over their face and nose to save lives? What would the passengers of Flight 93 think, who bravely fought the hijackers and died when the plane crashed into a field, likely protecting the Capitol or the White House from a strike, from someone? who won’t take a vaccine to help stop the spread of a deadly virus? What would the thousands of men and women who enlisted in the armed forces to wage a war on terror halfway around the world think and give their lives there, think of our angry and self-centered society?
Most of us will never be called upon to make the sacrifices that were endured as a result of the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. But we can do better than what we are doing now, in honor of these heroes and those who are now fighting at the forefront of our current struggle. Never forget.
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